VISITORS

25 June 2010

You know, I never do it the same way...WHAT???? I meant SCRAP! (Minds
outta the gutter, people!) Sometimes I see a picture that's begging to
be scrapped; other times I start with a story that has to be told. THIS
particular project started with this I stamped this paper a few weeks ago and I've been DYING to use it. So, I decided today was the day and matted it with cardstock. Then, I saw a circle I cut out a while back lying around and threw that on the page, too. Then, it was time to choose a picture from my pile.This picture of me, my Mom and Kea is perfect! I took about 100 pictures the night the Saints won the Super Bowl and I thought I would scrap them all using the team's colors....yeah....ummm, no! That got tired VERY quickly so I LUUUV that I'll be giving this picture the bright treatment! I wanted to use a piece of my CHIPBOARD DAFFODILS but it just wasn't RIGHT! I'm not really a theme scrapper where I MUST have flowers on a wedding layout or hearts for a Valentine's Day page...I just go with what I feel! Sooo, the DAFFODILS don't work...hmmm! Time to pull out my pizza box! OK! What about a few CHIPBOARD BUTTERFLIES thrown on there? But, I need three since there are three of us in the picture and I can't find the large one...DANG! Oh well!!! It'll pop up before I finish! I've chosen my title and the CHIPBOARD ANALOG ALPHABET to write that title.

UMMMM, NAH! That's just not working for me! TheANALOG ALPHABET is too bulky for this title. OOH! I know! I'll use the ANALOG ALPHABET for the "Love" portion of my title with a heart shaped CHIPBOARD BUTTON thrown into the mix: CUTE!!! OOOH! Kea was playing with some Christmas embellishments that I got for 80% off...let me use a few of those before he destroys them all!

OK! Then, I chose a smaller font sticker to write the long portion of my title:

OH! I forgot that I wanted to outline my painted circles with my white pen! I love when I can use stash on my projects...makes all that buying seem worthwhile...ya know? So, I decided to throw some eyelets on this page, along with my newest obsession, twine. I intended to use the eyelets on the holes that I would string the twine through but...ummm...I forgot! So, I used them instead in the centers of the doilies. And my large CHIPBOARD BUTTERFLY? In the words of my Keanohn, "I BOUND IT!!!" Now, on to the finishing touches like adding a piece of DENIM WRITER'S BLOCK THE GEORGE (in indigo) above my picture and punching my holes for stitching

Now, it's time to paint my BUTTERFLIES. I know what you're thinking: why in the HECK didn't you paint the butterflies before gluing them down? Simply put, sometimes I feel like a nut...sometimes I don't! Again, I just go with what I'm feeling at the time! I painted the title the same color as the butterflies, with the exception of the HEART CHIPBOARD BUTTON , which I covered with glitter glue. Once I added the journaling...VOILA! So, basically, I create all OVER THE PLACE!!! What's your scrap process?

21 June 2010

Hello everyone!!! I'm gonna share with you my scrap process on my layout today. My scrap process usually starts with the photos I'm gonna use. I have these photos of my daughter Nat when she first became a flower girl during my brother's wedding in 2006. I'm not particularly happy with their quality (I wasn't into scrapbooking then) but there is a story to tell here that I wanted to document for my daughter to read when she grows much older. ;o)

I usually match my pictures with the themes and colors of my patterned papers. Since she is still a toddler here and is wearing pink, I knew I wanted to use subtle patterns and dainty colors with a hint of green to match the pink. I got my Upsy Daisy Bebe papers and looked into my Buzz and Bloom stash to see which ones I can use on my layout.

At this stage, there will be a lot of moving around with the papers and the embellishments until I am satisfied with how the design will look like. I don't usually use sketches, truth is, I do not know how the resulting layout will look like when I start on one. LOL!!! I just have an idea of where to put my photos and embellishments and work from there. Maybe, you can say that I am more into the "whatever fits the photos" type of designs. LOL!!! I also love textures and lots of layers and details on my layouts so I always add up on embellishments as I go on.

Here's my final layout:

I used CB Shelby Alphabet in Upper and Lower Case. I painted them with black acrylic paint and coated them with Ranger Stickles in Black Diamond. I wasn't too happy that the alphas ended kinda flat when the Stickles dried up, so I topped them with Ranger Sepia Accents. The glazed look always wins me over!!!

Just a close-up of my CB Buttons flower centers. I painted them with acrylic paint and topped with pearls to cover the button holes. I outlined them with Derivan 3D Kindy GLitz - - I love the puffy and sparkly look it gave my chipboards!!!

The final process on my layouts are always the journaling part. I try to remember the life lessons and stories behind the photos and document them - - because I'm sure my kids would love to read about the stories I have of them when they grow up and learn how to read. ;o)

07 June 2010

I had never considered my Scrap Process until now. I know I
have a few crazy OCD-like “rules” that fly around in my brain when I’m
scrapping, but I had never really thought about it. This was really fun! So
here is what goes on in my head when I’m scrapping. I hope you have a few
minutes. In fact, you may want to grab yourself a cuppa, we could be here for a
while LOL

1.Photo

Photo selection is usually the starting point or inspiration
for me for any project. It is from here that I choose size, quantity colour or
Black & White? And usually a title for my LO will present itself based on
the photo.

2.Select Background

I love a plain background. White cardstock is my BG of
choice in most cases, or Kraft. I like the ability to create something special
using inks or paint, masking etc. Having said that, in this case I have gone
for a PP that I thought suited the masculine LO.

3.Choose a Colour Scheme

This is usually based on the photo. I like to pick the main
colour in the photo, and rather than matching it I like to go opposite! In my
opinion this makes the photo really pop. And after all, the photo should be the
main focus of any LO.

I like to select three or four contrasting/coordinating
colours to make up scheme. Using the colour wheel can be really helpful. So for example, I had the brown BG and the baby blue shirt in the photo. The opposite of the blue on the colour wheel is yellow/orange and you can never go wrong with white.

4.Gather Embellishments

Anything and everything
that I think will be suitable for my LO. This being a masculine LO, I
wanted to steer away from anything to flowery, frilly etc. I also like to have
a mix of textures. Acrylic, chipboard, paper, fabric, rough, smooth, shiny,
matte etc. I just grab it all from my stash, with the view to culling as I go.

5.Design

This is the part that can be a little tricky. Deciding where
everything should go. Personally I prefer a messy sort of chaotic look. Here’s
how I do it:

Position elements slightly off centre and not
quite straight

Use “negative space” (the area of the background
with nothing going on) to juxtapose against the mess so that things are a
little easier on the eye.

Layer up elements under the photo, poking out
here and there to create interest.

·Then embellish over the layers to add more and
more levels, and more to look at. All the while considering the different
materials and how they play off against each other. So here I have used COR In Bloom – Azure (only half
actually),MIR Cupid – Be Mine and CB Beaded Curtain (again only part) I
chose to leave this raw, again going with masculine theme and maximum contrast
of elements.

·Rough it up! Leave corners and edges unstuck.
Bend, distress, staple etc to give more texture e.g. you can see the mesh used
under the photo has been crumpled up before sticking down so that it adds more
character and interest. I have also roughed up theMIR
Cupid – Be MineandFrillswith an emery board to give a more “manly” feel.

·Echo the elements in a mini design block elsewhere on the page. I don't do this with every LO, but every now and then it can be fun.

6.Title

Sometimes I have already
decided on the title before I start the LO, and other times I am thinking about
it the whole time I am creating. But I do consider the overall design
aesthetic when I am choosing my font. So here I went with CB Vette Alphabet – Lowercase for
it’s no frills look.

7.Paint/Ink/Emboss

Now to finish off any chipbard elements. In this case I have painted the title in turquoise to match the COR In Bloom – Azure. When it was dry, I used the contrasting yellow/orange ink on a texture stamp for different effect.

8.Journaling

In my opinion, one of the key elements of scrapbooking. If, like
me, you are serious about scrapbooking being for your family history, then you
can’t go past journaling. Even if it is just a few words about who, when and
where; it’s just so important. In this LO the journaling is actually hidden in
the little orange envelope.

9.Stick It Down!

I have a few different adhesives that use, depending on what
I am sticking down. Fabric glue, tape or regular glue, mount tape. I have
decanted some glue into a bottle with a fine nozzle for finer work, like alphas
and small embellies.

If I’m scrapping away from home (which is most of the time)
and need to pack away before I have stuck down, I will quite often take a photo
on my phone of how I have laid everything out. I can’t trust my memory you see
LOL

And here’s the finished product

PHEW! We made it! Well I hope that you have managed to stay
with me, and thanks for staying to he end. Have you ever considered what your
scrap process is? What inspires you? What kind of scrapper are you? Perhaps you
could do a LO about it and share it with us.

01 June 2010

Hi-ya! The design team girls have been scrapping up a storm with the color combo I challenged them to use! And up next they're going to be sharing with you their scrapbook process - how they create from concept to execution. I thought this was an interesting way to look at how people create, what drives them, how their mojo works... So I've got a layout to share with you using the color combo {red, aqua & lime} and I'll explain my whole process. It'll give you a little insight into how I scrap, how I use products and what tickles my muse!

I was inspired by the "What If..." theme of the Scrapbook Industry Australia trade show earlier this month. A competition was run to find the best interpretation of the theme and a sketch. The sketch can be seen here. It is one of Becky
Fleck's Page Maps. There were some amazing entries and I loved the idea of trying out the sketch and the theme. I also really wanted to incorporate the color challenge.

Ok, so where to start? I found some pictures of my friends and I from a trip to Texas in 2004. Then I collected a bunch of papers and embellishments that fit the color combo and started pushing things around. I loved how the green dotti paper looked on the kraft background, and I loved how all the other colors looked with splashes of bold black & white patterns. I was happily pushing papers around for a while, trying to keep up with the sketch. I had four photos instead of three, and well, after I stuck down a
couple of the patterned papers, and mounted the pictures on grey card stock well, my mojo got the better of me and
won out over the sketch! So I've only really used this sketch as a starting point for my layout. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it and go where the art takes you, rather than trying to force something.Does it seem like I'm pushing the limit with my color choices, well not really, you see all of my patterned papers are lime, aqua and red, and they've all got some white in them. The kraft background is neutral as are the black & white elements, the grey also works as a nice mount for the pictures because it matches the colors in the photos and well it's just a mix of black & white, so it's not really introducing another color is it?

After adhering the photo block, I started playing with little bits and strips of patterned paper. I used the bold patterns in the papers to draw the eye around the layout and to the important focal points. I added a frame to my favourite picture by simply adhering aMIR Reflections and giving the edge a bit of bling with a line of Rock Candy Stickles.

At this point I felt the layout needed something around the edges - they looked too neat, tidy and too blank. So I placed one of my favorite products - a CB Retro Vine down the side, sprayed with glimmer mist, then repeated along the bottom edge. I just adore using chipboard pieces like this - it gave this layout a really cool subtle look, and now I have a pretty misted vine border to use on another layout! I did use one leaf covered in red ink and glitter perfectly placed in it's correct position, well just because I thought that part of the page needed a little more red!

Then I used embellishments to support the eye's path through the layout. Adding bits and pieces to cover a seam between two patterned papers, or a flower to add punch in a corner... I loved layering up these paper flowers, but thought they were all a bit monochromatic, and I wanted them to blend the colors together a bit. So I mixed and matched flowers to the color combo, and then took a DEN Blame It On The Sunshine flower and bleached the heck out of it. You see the indigo denim is gorgeous, but didn't match the layout and well, there are enough colors on this sucker already! So after soaking it in bleach and removing most of the colour I quickly set it dry with a heat gun and then gave it a few coats of twinkling H2Os in aqua and lime. You could totally use glimmer mist for this, but I think it'd be harder to get the variation in color from the middle to the edges.

I also used a fabric red heart which I cut from the 'i' from DEN Love & Kisses Alphabet in Blush. Again, because it was cute, and i thought that part of the page needed some red for balance. Finally, I used glitter and tape to give the page borders, line and really help to ground
and frame the design.

If you've had a go at creating with this color combo, post a picture in our Flickr pool to share with us! We'd love to see your Buzz and Bloom layouts!

The design team will be sharing their scrapping process here, so make sure you stick around for that!

19 May 2010

I love color combination challenges, especially in creating my scrapbook pages. I enjoy the process of gathering scrapbook materials related to the colors being set and then choosing the right amount of embellishments and papers to use on a page. Oftentimes, you'll have a chance of using old stuff together with the new.

For this page... this is Harvey, right after his first school trial late last year. He was so excited and had so much fun seeing his classmates for the first time. And I'm truly proud of him wanting to go to school. I really hope that he will enjoy it as much as he enjoyed schooling back in the Philippines.

Here are some close up photos of my page... I just love layering these embellies one on top of the other....There you have it... another fun page filled with my fave Buzz and Bloom products. Try it!!! Get some of your old Buzz and Bloom embellies and use it together with you new ones. You'll be amazed on its outcome!Thanks for looking!-Cookie

18 May 2010

In my attempt to mix the color combo red, teal and green together (with neutrals) I have to say, I had quite a difficult time. However, I pulled through and made it work. Here's my oldest son when he graduated Kindergarten a couple years ago.

Oh, all Buzz and Bloom chipboards used on my layout here are painted with acrylic paints and topped with glossy accents. Love how this stuff makes my chipboards look glazed and pretty!!!

This layout was created for a color challenge: Red, Teal/Aqua, Green, Neutrals. I'm upping the challenge: why not include a banner somewhere in your layout? Do share your creations with us by uploading your layouts in our Flickr gallery!!!

I like to wait a few minutes to wait for the glue to get tacky before I apply glitter to it.

Now I made the mistake of using a styrofoam plate while coating the chipboard piece with glitter. I did it to make clean up easier, but instead it caused a lot of static electricity... making the glitter "jump off" the plate. I have a glass cutting mat on my work table, I should've just stuck with that.

I applied a coat of mod podge to seal the deal. I found that without this step, the glitter would fly off as the project was handled.

28 April 2010

I am sure the people in the other fitting rooms wondered what I was up to when they heard the snap of my camera, but as a scrapbooker we can't worry about what others think when we are engaged in some guerrilla tactics to get the perfect shot. Today I wanted to share with you a layout I did using some Buzz and Bloom chipboard and the corduroy sheets to make a custom made flower.

You can see here that I have added a custom made flower from a sheet of COR Patchwork Dotti - Avocado. I am not one to add a lot of product or embellishments to my pages so I like to custom make mine whenever possible, and I love to add fabric to my layouts to give them a warm homespun feel.

To create this type of torn edge flower follow these steps.

1. Cut two equal sized circles from the fabric. The larger the circle, the larger the flower will be. My circles were approximately 2 inches in diameter. I simply traced a roll of gaffer tape with a pen onto the fabric. Sharp scissors cut through the fabric easily. For a fuller flower, cut more circles.

2. Lay one circle on top of the other and fold in half, then fold the half circle in half again.

3. Using your sharp scissors, start cutting strips starting at the rounded edge towards the point but not all the way to the point.

4. While the circles are still folded, staple the pointed end. This will keep the two circles together once you unfold them and will add a little bit of dimension once adhered to the page.

5. Unfold the circles and add a center to your flower. I stitched a button to the center, but other items to add might include adhesive backed pearls, a rhinestone, a bow tied with ribbon, etc.

The flower will be imperfect and frayed but that is the point; it is custom made and the fabric adds a homespun feel.

Last thing to add was my title. You already know how much I love the Buzz and Bloom chipboard alphabets. Here I sprayed the CB Vette - lowercase alphas with grey metallic Maya Mist and then topped them with Glossy Accents.

Thanks for letting me share and I hope to see you cutting up some of those denim and corduroy sheets to make your own embellishments.